Although the subject heading is somewhat misleading this is a some what of a restriction on the number of passengers that can take AMTRAK from Richmon Staples Mill Rd station.
http://www.wric.com/story/21640071/richmond-amtrak-station-sees-parking-congestion
http://wtvr.com/2013/03/14/parking-woes-at-amtrak-station-cause-concern-for-travelers/
AMTRAK when it built the Station could not have forseen the number of trains going to WASH and did not provide the number of parking spaces that are now needed. The new station allowed for AMTRAK to save 5 minutes of time since the trains no longer had to pull into Broad Street station go around the baloon track and proceed toward WASH or Florida after passeenger exchange.
If you read the comments after the articles you will find that there are some vacant business that maybe the Virgina DOT could buy / lease for more parking ? The ideal solution would be for the "S" line from Petersburg - Main St station to be rebuilt sooner ( The rebuilding is planned for the eventual HrSR from Raleigh - Richmond. Included is a rebuilding of ACCA yard tracks ) Then all thru trains could take that route. The Richmond -- WASH train originators are now probably too long to store at Main street ?
A less likely partial solution. -- If trains ran thru MAIN ST then maybe Broad street could become a multiple use station ? I understand it is now some kind of museum and have no memory of what is the parking situation and if the track layout is useable or recoverable ?
comments most welcomed -- !!!!!!!
Why did they abandon that beautiful station on Broad St.? The science museum could be built anywhere.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
true...Amtrak is underfunded, underplanned, underequipped. It should provide more service(es) if only the politicians would pay attention and the private railroads would cooperate and not be so shortsighted as to how they can make money.
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henry6 true...Amtrak is underfunded, underplanned, underequipped. It should provide more service(es) if only the politicians would pay attention and the private railroads would cooperate and not be so shortsighted as to how they can make money.
OK, what is the "proper" level of Amtrak funding, and how much passenger service would that provide, and how for would that go towards mitigating air pollution, oil consumption, traffic consumption, traffic accidents, and son on?
The reason I ask is that the Vision Report was lauded in the advocacy community for proposing (roughly) a 10-fold increase in Amtrak funding and was predicting a linear 10-fold increase in service, and a lot of people were OK with that -- in other words, Amtrak is not underfunded inasmuch as "you get what you pay for" -- want 10 times the trains, pay 10 times as much.
And 10 times the trains would boost the Amtrak share of national passenger miles to 1 percent, having a negligible effect on the ills that trains are supposed to alleviate.
If GM "killed the electric car", what am I doing standing next to an EV-1, a half a block from the WSOR tracks?
Proper funding depends on the definition of Amtrak and a clear indication of what it is supposed to do. Right now it is kicked on once side by politicians and their edicts and the other side by private business railroading that doesn't want them. Publicly it is argued from the point of it being socialism and anti private business to supporting private carriage by relieving road congestion for bus, truck and private cars. So define what you want in the form of Amtrak services, then decide what it takes to provide that level. Anyone can throw out any number for Amtrak and it will unequally right and wrong by how it is argued.
henry6 Anyone can throw out any number for Amtrak and it will unequally right and wrong by how it is argued.
Anyone can throw out any number for Amtrak and it will unequally right and wrong by how it is argued.
So, if as a society we cannot decide on the proper funding of Amtrak let alone the mission, where do you come up with the statement that Amtrak is "underfunded"?
What objective would you want Amtrak to meet, and how much money do you want for it? And if you don't have any idea, again, how is Amtrak underfunded?
Paul MilenkovicAnd 10 times the trains would boost the Amtrak share of national passenger miles to 1 percent, having a negligible effect on the ills that trains are supposed to alleviate.
Paul,
One per cent is small. But I would argue it is not "negligible." This is especially true when we consider that a large number of passenger miles are for trips close to home such as to the local supermarket where train travel is inappropriate.
John
Alright, fair question. Amtrak is underfunded in my estimation because of what it could be and do in our transportation system to carry the most number of people and the lowest cost and with the least harm to the environment. If there were more services, more reliable, more frequent, then more would ride trains which in turn would produce more demand for more. If you don't want people to ride trains, do want more highways and more air travel, then Amtrak is overfunded. Our problem is that we, as a nation, as a people, as a whole, have not been able to either ask the question or apply an answer but just ride on the ties of a government and the rails of private industry.
henry6Our problem is that we, as a nation, as a people, as a whole, have not been able to either ask the question or apply an answer but just ride on the ties of a government and the rails of private industry.
Henry,
I hope you won't take this the wrong way. I think both of us, that is you and I, are kind of dumb and that in the eyes of many is the problem. Here we are living in the northeast. We have plenty of rail transportation. No place has better rail transportation than we do from both out states and the Federal Government. So logically we should oppose any Amtrak expense. After all, it will only take our tax dollars to provide service that we ourselves will never use or hardly ever use. Yet we want our tax dollars to go to Amtrak for service that we will never use. Many people find this hard to understand. Maybe they are right.
I can't speak for you but I do see us as part of a larger community not only with Amtrak but with other social needs. So I hope you continue with your present beliefs and I intend to do so with mine.
Oh I can be parochial and nay it. I can say I don't ride Amtrak and nay it. I can find millions of reasons to say nay to Amtrak. And airplanes and airports for the same reasons. But, as a practical citizen I understand the need for the services and support public transportation whether by private enterprise or public agency. I just want to see it be a service with integrity and quality to attract and serve the most number of customers. I like treain. So I will choose train over other wherever and whenever possible.
Paul M loves to drag out that inappropriate statistic. Total passenger miles is meaningless. The statistics should be total intercity passenger miles by plane, bus and train and also that number plus intercity highway miles.
C&NW, CA&E, MILW, CGW and IC fan
henry6So I will choose train over other wherever and whenever possible.
I'm like Emily Dickinson. I never saw a train I wouldn't take.
schlimmThe statistics should be total intercity passenger miles by plane, bus and train and also that number plus intercity highway miles.
Schlimm,
I'm not sure about what statistics we should use. It seems to me many have strengths and weaknesses. And to be really frank I see a lot of statistics that I am not confident are accurate but I cannot find a source to see if they are accurate or not. Actually, that is often my main problem. I don't suggest anyone would misrepresent but at the same time I am reluctant to accept statistics unless I can really know they are accurate.
When it comes to automobiles I wonder how we can know just how many passenger miles Iare driven in a year. I don't see an accurate way to gather that information.
With highways, we certainly can know how many miles of interstate we have and how many miles of state highways. But I don't think all highways are equal. In my own state, New Jersey, we have our north south interstates, I-95 (the New Jersey Turnpike) and I-287. Then we have some short connecting highways such as I-280 and I-295. I don't think they are really equal.
You make it needlessly complicated. We only need intercity miles if we are examining the place of Amtrak in intercity travel and can break out intercity auto miles to see where it fits in commercial travel.
Do we have simply a lot of discreet transportation routes where we can cut some off here and add others there as we choose? Or do we have a complex and interdependent transportation system where altering one part will have an impact on all the other parts? Most of us use our hands much more than we use our little toes but few of us would cut off our little toes because of that.
The answer about Broad St. Station is that the Va. DMV expanded where the loop tracks were, resulting in Amtrak backing into the station. The building itself was expensive to heat and maintain, especially with only four trains using it. RF&P moved its headquarters out in 1976 to new facilities on Laburnam Ave. Although
some tracks have been put back in for display of a steam locomotive and some passenger cars, it would not lend itself to be used as a station again since it is the science museum of Va. Parking, as I recall, is about the same as with Staples Mill Rd. station. I hope this helps you.
schlimm Paul M loves to drag out that inappropriate statistic. Total passenger miles is meaningless. The statistics should be total intercity passenger miles by plane, bus and train and also that number plus intercity highway miles.
The airline passenger miles are exclusively intercity, and airline passenger miles are 100:1 over current Amtrak passenger miles. The Vision plan would boost Amtrak to 10 percent of the passenger miles of airlines.
There were some words offered about civility in commentary, and here the words "loves" (in a sarcastic tone), "drags out", "inappropriate" and "meaningless" are now offered.
But as long as "congestion", "imported oil", "CO2 emissions", "pollution", and "the environment" are offered as reasons to fund Amtrak as opposed to intra-city rail or hybrid cars, aggregate miles are a perfectly appropriate and meaningful statistic, and I will continue to "drag out" those numbers for as long as the aforementioned reasons are offered in discussion of passenger rail.
Sorry about the tone, but the key problem is your ongoing citing of aggregate mileage as opposed to strictly intercity miles when discussing Amtrak. Most auto mileage is relatively short-haul, to stores, schools, the suburban train station, etc, a market. which Amtrak does not and cannot serve, since it is strictly "intercity" by mandate.. Apples and oranges? What you do deliberately and grossly distorts the status of Amtrak. You can do whatever you want, but I believe you know better.
Gentlemen; our threads are digressing too much. This thread is about parking the various solutions and as such should remain on subject.
and to go farther NJ is having many parking problems ..
http://www.nj.com/hunterdon-county-democrat/index.ssf/2013/03/demand_for_mass_transit_to_nyc.html
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